Interface design, writing, and sincerity

Over time, I’m having more and more conversations about the similarities between interface design and writing. Here’s a great quote from George Orwell, who wrote 1984 and Animal Farm, that made me instantly think of interface design. “The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s […]

Over time, I’m having more and more conversations about the similarities between interface design and writing. Here’s a great quote from George Orwell, who wrote 1984 and Animal Farm, that made me instantly think of interface design.

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.”

Could we recast this into “the great enemy of clear interfaces is insincerity”?

In other words, does the sincerity of the copywriter/designer shine through? I think it might.